Leon Csernohlavek

In September 2015, Elizabeth Parrish flew from Seattle to Colombia to receive an experimental treatment.

She had spent more than two years studying literature, talking to experts, and had decided to undergo gene therapy a treatment for genetic disorders that adds genes into cells to replace those that are faulty or absent. She ordered the therapeutic cells months in advance and arranged for a technician to administer the therapy in a clean room within a short distance of a hospital, in case she suffered a bad immune response. The gene therapy was shipped in a closed container and administered via an IV over approximately five hours. Parrish remained under observation for a few days and then flew home.

Was I anxious afterwards? Yes, Parrish says. I was definitely looking for indications that anything was wrong with my body. I was acutely aware of every ache and pain. She had become the first person to subject herself to gene therapy for the disease that affected her. Her condition? Ageing.

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In January 2013, Liz Parrish son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Every few days, he would have some devastatingly low blood sugar levels, Parrish says. I was continually reminded that we as humans spend a lot of time trying to pretend as if our death is not eminent. She remembers being told that her son was lucky because diabetes was treatable. I was really hit hard by the time I spent in children's' hospitals, Parrish says. She had read about the promises of modern medicine, in particular, gene therapy. I began trying to figure out why nothing was translating to hospitals where kids were dying.

Parrish began attending medical conferences on her own. I found this conference in Cambridge that looked to be about genetics, Parrish says. It turned out to be about longevity. There she learned how gene modifications had already extended the normal lifespan of worms up to 11 times and of mice by five times. It made me realise that if ageing was a disease and everyone was suffering from an illness, the fastest way to fund this research would be to essentially educate the world that was the case and get them to put money behind finding a cure, Parrish says.

At that point, Parrish, who up until then had been working part-time for software companies, started her own company, BioViva, to expedite therapeutics and give access to patients. Why did so many patients have to wait, suffer and die? Parrish asks. We became so risk adverse that patients die waiting for treatment. We have to change that drastically. We have millions of terminally ill patients on the planet right now. These patients should have access to the most promising therapeutics that don't have a myriad of off-target effects. There is no artificial intelligence or meta analysis of these therapies that is going to replace what happens in the human body. And we let people die because we're so concerned that a therapy might kill them. This is lawyering at its absolute worst.

Parrish then made another decision: she was going to try the first therapy on herself. I believed it was the most responsible and ethical thing to do. I believed the company should take its own medicine first before moving onto patients.

Parrish tried two therapies. One was a myostatin inhibitor, a drug designed to increase muscle mass, and the second was telomerase therapy, which lengthens the telomeres, a part of the chromosomes that protect genetic material from damage and allows the replication of DNA. Lengthening the telomeres can, at least in theory, extend cellular lifespan and make cells more resilient to damage.

The telomerase therapy had reversed ageing and extended lifespan in mice, Parrish says. I assumed this was the most promising therapy ever, and it was just sitting in research and wasn't moving forward as a viable option due to what appeared to be patenting issues and a lot of academics sitting on the fence bickering. We will never know unless we get it in humans. It's almost a moot point to try to continue to argue whether it works or not if we never use it. Its just like lemmings walking off the cliff, waiting for someone else to solve the problems.

A few weeks after the treatment, Parrish undertook follow-up exams, conducted by independent third parties. Her telomeres in her white blood cells had lengthened by more than 600 base pairs which, according to Parrish, implies they had extended by the equivalent of 20 years. A full-body MRI imaging revealed an increase in muscle mass and reduction in intramuscular fat. Other tests indicate Parrish now has improved insulin sensitivity and reduced inflammation levels.

The company was built essentially to prove these therapies work or not, Parrish says. Remember BioViva is not a research organisation. We are taking things like gene therapies and using them like technology. We would like to create an open market where people have access to acquiring these technologies, much like you would acquire a cellphone or a computer.

Further tests are being conducted at George Churchs lab in Harvard. Parrish and her team are currently working with other hospital clinics around the world to conduct more safety and feasibility studies in human subjects. I had already put things into perspective that without medicine, my son would be dead and he really was the meaning of my life, Parrish says. I was a person who quite honestly felt I had not really contributed that much to society and this was my opportunity to do so.

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Cure for ageing could lie in gene therapy | WIRED UK